Previews

Aliens vs. Predator: Extinction

The real time strategy genre is one of the most popular on PC. Games like Warcraft III and Age of Mythology sell tens of thousands -- even multiple millions -- of copies. On consoles, though, it's a different story. Despite the arguable inspiration for the genre being Tecno Soft's early Genesis masterpiece Herzog Zwei, the genre came into its own on the PC -- and thanks to an evolution to keyboard and mouse input, is pretty cemented to it. As with RPGs, the console definition of a strategy game veers off at a steep angle from that of PC. But that doesn't mean that with some care and attention, an attempt can't be made to bring the genre to a wider audience. That's just what Electronic Arts and developer Zono have decided to do. With a few tweaks and a tasty license, they may bring RTS to the console masses.

The Aliens vs. Predator license is an unusual one. Aliens and Predators both come from films which bear their names, but they're has never actually been an AVP movie; they're have been plenty of comics and a large number of games, though. Further, these violent sci-fi powerhouses have usually been applied to first person shooter context. However, given the three opposed forces -- Marines, Aliens, and Predators -- the typical three race setup of an RTS seems like a natural fit. Zono has taken ideas that already existed in the franchises and naturally extrapolated them out into an RTS setting with surprising success. In addition, they're are some even new ideas -- fully backed by Fox -- thrown into the mix.

Type S Satisfaction

Perhaps the single most important interface idea this game utilizes is that you control the screen -- with your cursor fixed in the center -- as opposed to the usual inherently clumsy attempt for the use of a mouse cursor controlled with a game pad. It doesn't sound like much. In fact, it might even sound weird, or bad. Quite the contrary, it helps the game be more controllable and obvious. Instead of drawing a box around units you want to move (similar to the way you'd select folders on your PC's desktop) they've also made it so that the longer you hold down the A button, the larger the radius of the cursor becomes and the more units you can select. These two control ideas offer a world of ease in a genre that typically feels awkward on consoles.Another way in which the game is streamlined is the typically forced "farming" convention of the genre has been done away with. You still need resources to upgrade your units, of course, but they're much less of a hassle to accrue in AVPE. The Marines -- United States Colonial Marines, that is -- gain their resources from Atmospheric Processors (a.k.a. "Atmos") on the surface of the planets in the game. The Aliens derive new units from the bodies they harvest, and Predators have a "shrine" which offers them upgrades based on how many kills they achieve. With the tedious management of resources out of the way, you can worry more about building your force and clearing the levels. As the game is a single-player only experience, with separate campaigns for each race, that's a good thing.

Come on baby, light my fire...

That's just one example of how the three different factions play completely differently; as you'd expect they're nothing alike. Aliens have a queen that they must protect; Predators gain bonuses for taking the skulls of the vanquished as trophies. Marines have highly powered weaponry -- stuff you've seen in the movies, and stuff that's based on the technologies of today extrapolated logically into a futuristic concept. The Zono designer/weapons guy I spoke to had a formidable, if not outright frightening, grasp on contemporary weapons technology and most of it's gone into the Marines' portion of the game.